Birit Broekman is professor of hospital psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and affiliated with the OLVG Academic Collaborative Center.
Her research focuses on the interaction between soma, psyche and context, with special attention to women’s health.
After studying psychology and medicine and specializing in psychiatry, she worked for ten years as a psychiatrist and researcher at Singapore University Hospital. There she further specialized in hospital psychiatry and led a research team focused on pregnancy psychiatry.
As a Veni Laureate, she investigated the influence of sex hormones on sleep and mood, which led to follow-up research within the Menopause Consortium. While working as a hospital psychiatrist, she previously contributed to the establishment of integrated (outpatient) clinics for psychiatrically vulnerable women during pregnancy, puerperium and menopause. She currently works as Section Leader of Clinic and Hospital Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC.